[center][h3]Sol, Defenders of Harmony Space Station[/h3][/center]

Fergus turned around, though he didn't look like himself. His skin was a pale white, and his hair seemed to have changed color slightly to a more grey tone. The most obvious oddity was the fact that his entire body seemed to be glowing blue, and his eyes were glowing red. He didn't act like himself either, almost as if he was on some kind of autopilot, possessed by some other being.

"It is them. They will be defeated." He said, taking his armor and picking up his plasma saber. "You say that this 'Seed of Harmony' is essential for purifying Faust, a goddess. Tell me where it is, and I will open a portal to it."

[center][h3]Taoshe[/h3][/center]

The Terrans stared at the imposing being, quote obviously terrified of it. However, the diplomat appeared to be fully composed. While the others seemed paralyzed in fear, he looked as if he was carefully examining the situation. He trusted the Septonians, and believed they wouldn't lead him into a situation where he would die. If he assumed that what had just been said wasn't a threat, then it would signify a major difference in how the two species spoke, and perhaps even thought. Responding in a non-threatening tone could be seen as an insult or a threat to the alien. As such, he chose to simply follow protocol. It wasn't exactly the safest thing to do, if there was even a slight misconception about his actions he would surely be killed. He just hoped that if that happened, his crew would be able to follow through with the protocol instead of starting a fight.

He reached out with his left hand, turning his palm up as if he was offering something to the alien. He then reached for a blade with his right hand, drawing it as slow as he could in the hopes that it wouldn't be seen as aggressive. Kneeling down, he held the weapon high above his head, holding the blade's tip with his left palm to let it lay horizontally. The action appeared extremely submissive, something you would expect to see during a shameful surrender instead of a diplomatic meeting.

The blade itself was white, and seemed to be some kind of ceramic material. Holes were cut all over it, their edges smooth and almost like a piece of art. The edge of the blade itself was dull, and curved instead of coming to a point. It looked like it would be useless in combat, but a blue glow barely visible from behind the holes seemed to suggest otherwise.

"We are humans." He said, his head bowed down with his eyes closed. "Sometimes we are called Terrans, but names do not matter. What matters is who we are, but even we do not know that. Sometimes we say we are great warriors, fighting for our survival against an enemy that would destroy us. Sometimes we say that we are vile monsters, prone to kill without reason and sacrifice ourselves with the sole purpose of causing panic among our own people. Sometimes we say that we are explorers, wanting nothing more than to learn more about the universe. Sometimes we say that we are a wise species, with knowledge unlike any other and experience that goes beyond that of much older species. Sometimes we say that we are a young people, only coming across our knowledge by accident when our scientists refused to follow the natural order of advancement. However, if I had to choose one way to describe us, it would be that we are stubborn. When we were told to surrender, every one of us took up arms and drove the enemy out of our homes. When we thought it was impossible to ever leave our home system, we simply said 'no' and took to the stars. When we saw the atrocities we committed, we pushed onward, trying to redeem ourselves. When we were told to stand by and submit to occupation, we fought the enemy without hope or chance of victory. That is how I would describe humanity: stubborn."

He knew the alien likely didn't understand any of it, and the words certainly did not fit his posture, but he felt it was the right choice. Opening his eyes for a brief moment, he found that the rest of the humans were also kneeling, holding up their blades as well. Theirs were significantly less elegant, being simple ceramic cylinders with perfectly circular holes dotted all over them. It made sense, as the diplomat made his blade himself, calculating just how to get the holes positioned correctly using his genetically modified brain.

[center][h3]Sol[/h3][/center]

The Terran fleet was beginning to be pushed back, but the first missiles from the inner planets began to come in. It was an absolute storm of fire, hundreds of missiles streaking through space leaving behind blue plasma trails as they headed towards the Iscandarian fleet. The impact was spectacular, giant flashes of light confirming the hits as Iscandarian ships dropped to the nuclear and antimatter missiles in droves. With the enemy distracted and weakened due to the missiles, the Terran fleet let loose a barrage of beam and pulse fire. Plasma beams and cannons bit hard into the Iscandarian fleet, shields being obliterated by the hail of plasma. The civilians kept firing their railguns and lasers, acting as slow and weak targets to draw fire from the military vessels.

The Terrans weren't using any special tactics, and there was no sing of allied vessels. Though the battle would be bloody, the Terrans would likely loose in the end. With nothing left to stop them in space, the Iscandarians could blitz the Terran planets. While every last Terran would put up a fight, against the highly superior Iscandarian ground forces, they would be nothing but a bug to be squashed. Even tanks were useless against their magic, and thus, the Iscandarians had won the war. The entire Terran fleet doomed to fall, their soldiers and milita powerless, their defenses wasted on the almost hopeless battle.

Just like before, escape pods flew at the Iscandarians, a vain attempt to win the battle that did nothing more than condemn every last Terran at the battle to die. As the two fleets orbited around Jupiter, a dot of blue light appeared over the orange, gassy horizon. It was no other planet than Earth, giving the humans one last look at the homeworld they were bound to lose. As if they had been waiting for this moment, a message was sent to the Iscandarians from the lead vessel. A commander with no experience with the Terrans would expect a surrender offer, but Terrans never surrendered.

"Hear me Iscandarians!" Called the voice of Kai Vivian, which was soon joined with the voice of thousands of other Terrans. The entire fleet was speaking now, every single person from captain to cook joining to inform the Iscandarians of their coming doom.

"REST IN HELL!"

With that message, the dot of blue light that was Earth suddenly glowed brighter. It was as if the entire planet had become an impossibly small star, sending out a thick beam of glowing blue light towards the Iscandarian fleet. The laws of physics said that it couldn't reach Jupiter until the fleets had already left the targeted area, but as it got closer and closer it became clear that it was not bound by the laws of physics. It was the same tachyon weapon used in the battle above Earth as the opening move of the Terrans, but it was different. Much larger, thicker, more powerful as a whole. To build more than the thousand ships gathered to fight would be impossible for the Terrans to do on such short notice, especially ones with such a powerful weapon. It was simple reason to believe that the weapon was fired from stationary platforms above Earth, perhaps built after the battle. Even so, it made no sense that they could have been built without anyone noticing their construction.

Of course, the oddity of the existence of the weapon certainly didn't cause any drop in its effectiveness. The giant beam smashed into the Iscandarian fleet, avoiding all but a few scattered Terran ships that broke formation. It was a perfectly calculated attacked, something the Terrans had been planning all along. The entire engagement was a trap, and the Terrans knew damn well that the attacking fleet represented the majority of the Iscandarian Navy. This battle would decide the entire war, and they knew it.

[center][h3]Earth, Just Before the Terran Attack[/h3][/center]

The decades-old bombardment platforms sat like sleeping giants, still ready to destroy The District from orbit if need be. The dormant sattelites didn't know that the war was over or that the threat was gone, all they knew was their programming, and their programming said that an ICBM launch meant bombardment. High Command, of course, knew all of those things. What they also knew was that these bombardment platforms had absolutely nothing to do with railguns.

Their design was sent to the European Union during WWIII by a mysterious person who gave no reference to his identity beyond sloppy handwriting and even worse drawing skills. There was no explanation of how their weapons worked or what fueled them, but there was a message that said "Create this, and the war will be won". The design was simple enough, and thus the EU ordered that a prototype be constructed and tested on an Asteroid. The damage caused was incredible, the entire asteroid being vaporized by an energy beam. Further tests showed that the power of the beam could be controlled, just like the blueprints said.

With this awesome power, the EU constructed the orbitals now stationed over The District and threatened to destroy the entire country if they didn't surrender. An incredibly timed (and likely planned) assassination of the President forced the Vice President to accept the terms of the surrender out of fear for his own life. Ironically he was executed for war crimes just days later. Having never used the platforms, the secret never got out, with the EU always referring to them as "extremely powerful" in order to dodge any questions about the origin of the technology.

The secret of all modern Terran technology was also safely kept, with dozens of remembered inventors receiving similar blueprints and notes that miraculously fixed all of their problems. Warp Drive, Quantum Entanglement Transmission, wormhole generation, plasma sabers, and even the modern coilgun were all made from mysterious blueprints. And with every one of them, there was a note saying "You would have come up with it eventually, so let me do you a favor". These inventions abruptly stopped around 2040, becoming little more than myths in the public's mind. Even so, many believed the stories, and vowed to one day thank the person who practically uplifted humanity.

The Terran High Command would not learn until the weapon was deployed in the Second Battle of Sol, but those bombardment platforms used tachyon lance weapons despite being built decades before the technology was supposedly first used. With no records of the mysterious blueprints, it was left as a mystery. Now, however, was the first time the weapons on the platforms would be fired.

The hulking masses of armor and maneuvering thrusters rotated to face away from the planet for the first time in their existence, seeming to groan with their waking movement. A timer counted down in High Command, waiting for the time to fire. It reached zero, and the neglected button in the decades-sol bunker was pressed, firing the tachyon lances. Lighting up the night sky of the entirety of the Americas, it streaked out towards Jupiter where the battle for humanity's survival was raging. If the calculations were right, the beam would hit the Iscandarian fleet while missing the Terrans, tearing it apart and ensuring a Terran victory.

As the people in High Command cheered, expecting a victory, the man who pressed the button simply stared at the viewscreen. He felt as though someone was talking to him, though he felt it only in his mind, like it was a thought. Even so, he felt compelled to listen to the thought.

[i]This is how it was always meant to be used.[/i]